34 accepted papers
Magnetic nanoparticle (MNP) guidance has attracted considerable attention for biomedical applications, such as targeted drug delivery and minimally invasive therapy. However, precise navigation in vivo remains challenging, particularly in high-flow vascular environments, where drag forces dominate p…
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided robotic systems offer great potential for new minimally invasive medical tools, including MRI-powered miniature robots. By re-purposing the imaging hardware of an MRI scanner, the magnetic miniature robot could be navigated into the remote part of the patient'…
Traditional robotic systems have proven to be instrumental in object manipulation tasks for automated manufacturing processes. Object manipulation in such cases typically involves transport, pick-and-place and assembly of objects using automated conveyors and robotic arms. However, the forces at mic
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided robots emerged as a promising tool for minimally invasive medical operations. Recently, MRI scanners have been proposed for actuating and localizing magnetic microrobots in the patient’s body using two-dimensional (2D) MR images. However, three-dimensional (3D
The introduction of neuroendoscopy, microneu- rosurgery, neuronavigation, and intraoperative imaging for surgical operations has made significant improvements over other traditionally invasive surgical techniques. The integration of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-driven surgical devices with intra…
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-powered magnetic robotics aims to convert clinical MR scanners into a remote robotic manipulation platform to provide an alternative approach for interventional MRI procedures. The presence of the main magnetic field ( <b xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML
Dual-use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) devices for robot tracking and actuation has transformed them into potential medical robotics platforms for targeted therapies and minimally invasive surgeries. In this letter, we present the dynamic simulations of an MRI-based tracking and actuation sche
Untethered small-scale soft robots have promising applications in minimally invasive surgery, targeted drug delivery, and bioengineering applications as they can access confined spaces in the human body. However, due to highly nonlinear soft continuum deformation kinematics, inherent variability dur…
Electromagnetic field gradients generated by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) devices pave the way to power untethered magnetic robots remotely. This innovative use of MRI devices allows exerting magnetic pulling forces on untethered magnetic robots, which could be used for navigation, diagnosis, dr…
Untethered miniature robots have significant poten-tial and promise in diverse minimally invasive medical applications inside the human body. For drug delivery and physical contra-ception applications inside tubular structures, it is desirable to have a miniature anchoring robot with self-locking me
Untethered small-scale soft robots can potentially be used in healthcare and biomedical applications. They can access small spaces and reshape their bodies in a programmable manner to adapt to unstructured environments and have diverse dynamic behaviors. However, the functionalities of current minia…
Untethered magnetically actuated microrobots can access distant, enclosed and small spaces, such as inside microfluidic channels and the human body, making them appealing for minimal invasive tasks. Despite the simplicity of individual magnetic microrobots, a collective of these microrobots that can…
Deep reinforcement learning (DRL) techniques have been successful in several domains, such as physical simulations, computer games, and simulated robotic tasks, yet the transfer of these successful learning concepts from simulations into the real world scenarios remains still a challenge. In this le
As precise motion-controlled applications of mobile untethered devices emerge into real-world scenarios, full manipulator dexterity will be required. In rigid bodies without joints, one such requirement will be the ability to control all six-degrees-of-freedom (DOF). Magnetic fields and their spatia
We use multiple spinning micro-rafts at the air-water interface as mobile microrobot collectives and present here their collective behaviors, including navigating around anchored obstacles, and trapping and transporting floating objects. The 3D-printed micro-rafts are circular disKS of 100 μm in dia…
In the last decade, researchers and medical device companies have made major advances towards transforming passive capsule endoscopes into active medical robots. One of the major challenges is to endow capsule robots with accurate perception of the environment inside the human body, which will provi…
A reliable, real time, multi-sensor fusion functionality is crucial for localization of actively controlled capsule endoscopy robots, which are an emerging, minimally invasive diagnostic and therapeutic technology for the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. In this study, we propose a novel multi-sensor fu…
Many robots make use of gravitational potential energy, generated by another mode, to enhance mobility through gliding locomotion. However, unstructured environments can create situations in which the initial conditions for steady-state gliding cannot be achieved; for example, jumping out of a hole,…
A soft two-tailed microrobot in low Reynolds number fluids does not achieve forward locomotion by identical tails regardless to its wiggling frequency. If the tails are nonidentical, zero forward locomotion is also observed at specific oscillation frequencies (which we refer to as the reversal frequ
Reliable and real-time 3D reconstruction and localization functionality is a crucial prerequisite for the navigation of actively controlled capsule endoscopic robots as an emerging, minimally invasive diagnostic and therapeutic technology for use in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. In this study, we…
A simple way to mitigate the potential negative side-effects associated with chemical lysis of a blood clot is to tear its fibrin network via mechanical rubbing using a helical robot. Here, we achieve mechanical rubbing of blood clots under ultrasound guidance and using external magnetic actuation.
In the last decade, many medical companies and research groups have tried to convert passive capsule endoscopes as an emerging and minimally invasive diagnostic technology into actively steerable endoscopic capsule robots which will provide more intuitive disease detection, targeted drug delivery an…
Robotic systems that are soft or incorporate soft actuators are well suited for operation in unstructured environments and for safe interactions with fragile objects. The majority, however, are tethered or burdened with bulky payloads of pumps and compressors. In a recent article we presented a seal…
Magnetic untethered millirobots, which are actuated and controlled by remote magnetic fields, have been proposed for medical applications due to their ability to safely pass through tissues at long ranges. For example, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems with a 3-7 T constant unidirectional mag…
This paper presents a magnetically actuated soft capsule endoscope for fine-needle aspiration biopsy (B-MASCE) in the upper gastrointestinal tract. A thin and hollow needle is attached to the capsule, which can penetrate deeply into tissues to obtain subsurface biopsy sample. The design utilizes a s…
Magnetotactic bacteria have the potential to controllably reach stagnant fluids inside the human body and achieve targeted drug delivery. In this application, motion of the magnetotactic bacteria is influenced by the near-surface effects such as the background flows and surface interactions. Here, w…
Most demonstrated mobile microrobot tasks so far have been achieved via pick-and-placing and dynamic trapping with teleoperation or simple path following algorithms. In our previous work, an untethered magnetic microgripper has been developed which has advanced functions, such as gripping objects. B…
The risk of side effects from thrombolytic agents can be minimized by using smaller doses, assisted by mechanical rubbing against blood clots using helical robots. Quantifying this observation, we study the influence of rubbing against clots on their removal rate in vitro. First, we present a hydrod
Fluidic actuators allow versatile, agile, and powerful motions and are commonly applied in robotics and automation. Likewise, many biological systems use fluidic actuators implemented with tissue for a wealth of tasks and performances. Spiders for example apply a hybrid mechanism of hydraulically ac…
In travelling towards the oviducts, sperm cells undergo transitions between planar to helical flagellar propulsion by a beating tail based on the viscosity of the environment. In this work, we aim to model and mimic this behaviour in low Reynolds number fluids using externally actuated soft robotic…
We use electrospinning to fabricate sperm-shaped magnetic microrobots with a range of diameters from 50 μm to 500 μm. The variables of the electrospinning operation (voltage, concentration of the solution, dynamic viscosity, and distance between the syringe needle and collector) to achieve beading e
Many highly dynamic novel mobile robots have been developed being inspired by animals. In this study, we are inspired by a basilisk lizard's ability to run and steer on water surface for a hexapedal robot. The robot has an active tail with a circular plate, which the robot rotates to steer on water.…
Vibration-driven locomotion has been widely used for crawling robot studies. Such robots usually have a vibration motor as the actuator and a fibrillar structure for providing directional friction on the substrate. However, there has not been any studies about the effect of fiber structure on robot…
In this work, we examine two design modifications to a tethered motor-driven flapping-wing system. Previously, we had demonstrated a simple mechanism utilizing a linear transmission for resonant operation and direct drive of the wing flapping angle for control. The initial two-wing system had a weig…